This San Diego Library Is Now Home to an Archive of Craft Brewing History

National Library Week is a good time to remember that libraries hold more than just books. The institutions can be home to telescopes, tie collections, and in the case of California State University, San Marcos (CSUSM), beer paraphernalia tracing the history of craft breweries in San Diego.

As Public Libraries Online reports, the Brewchive is a new project from the university's library. According to CSUSM Special Collections and History Librarian Judith Downie, the collection dates back to the late 1980s, about the time that the craft brewing scene first started to gain steam in the San Diego area. Around 30 years ago there were maybe five or six craft breweries in the county; today there are 156.

Downie wants to feature artifacts from as many local breweries that have opened in that time span as possible. She's currently on the hunt for items like growlers, coasters, t-shirts, and tap handles—some she has to purchase with her own money and others brewery owners are happy to donate.

The Brewchive also includes an online component, with newsletters from a local homebrewing association and brewing logs and scoresheets from homebrewing competitions. Eventually the web archive will have recorded oral histories of San Diego craftbrewing as told by homebrewers and professionals.

There's still no word on whether the university plans to sell actual craft beer to go along with the local history, but if they did, it wouldn't be a first for a library. The Jefferson County Public Library, in Denver, Colorado was the latest to use craft brew to entice a new generation of visitors.

Pabst Blue Ribbon Could Be All Tapped Out If It Loses Beer Battle With MillerCoors

If Pabst Blue Ribbon is your beer of choice, the next month or two could be a nail-biter. In a battle of the brews, Pabst and MillerCoors are locked in a lawsuit that could determine the fate of the popular alcoholic beverage.

The situation started going sour when MillerCoors, which produces Miller Lite, Coors, and Coors Light beers among other brands, notified Pabst that they would no longer be making and packaging Pabst Blue Ribbon, Old Milwaukee, or Lone Star beers. The two signed an agreement in 1999 that allowed Pabst to distribute beer brewed by MillerCoors, effectively outsourcing the beer-making process. That agreement is set to expire in 2020. While it allows for two five-year extensions, MillerCoors apparently wants out.

MillerCoors is arguing that they no longer have the manufacturing capacity to continue working with Pabst; Pabst is insisting MillerCoors is looking for a way out of the agreement so they can cripple the competition. The company is also adamant that, with its need for 4 to 4.5 million barrels annually, MillerCoors is the only option. They claim MillerCoors rejected an offer for Pabst to lease one of their brewing facilities and that they also offered to extend the deal only if Pabst paid $45 per barrel—a near-triple price increase that the company can’t afford.

As a result, Pabst sued MillerCoors for $400 million and is asking MillerCoors to act in good faith to help find a resolution that works for all parties. The company also claims to have documents proving MillerCoors deliberately closed breweries so it would no longer have the means to supply Pabst.

If the court finds MillerCoors has no further obligation to Pabst, the company will have to do some scrambling to find a way to continue making product. Pabst claims the only other manufacturer with the capacity to brew enough beer to meet their demand is Anheuser-Busch, and they don’t accept contracts to be a supplier.

The jury trial in Milwaukee County Circuit Court is expected to last through November.

Why Do Hangovers Get Worse As You Get Older?

“I just can’t drink like I used to” is a common refrain among people pushing 30 and beyond. This is roughly the age when it starts getting harder to bounce back from a night of partying, and unfortunately, it keeps getting harder from there on out.

Even if you were the keg flip king or queen in college, consuming the same amount of beer at 29 that you consumed at 21 will likely have you guzzling Gatorade in bed the next day. It’s true that hangovers tend to worsen with age, and it’s not just because you have a lower alcohol tolerance from going out less. Age affects your body in various ways, and the way you process alcohol is one of them.

Because your body interprets alcohol as poison, your liver steps in to convert it into different chemicals that are easier to break down and eliminate from your body. As you get older, though, your liver produces less of the enzymes and antioxidants that help metabolize alcohol, according to a study from South Korea. One of these enzymes—called alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH)— has been called the “primary defense” against alcohol. It kicks off the multi-step process of alcohol metabolization by turning the beer or booze—or whatever you imbibed—into a chemical compound called acetaldehyde. Ironically, this substance is even more toxic than your tipple of choice, and a build-up of acetaldehyde can cause nausea, palpitations, and face flushing. It usually isn’t left in this state for long, though.

Another enzyme called aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) helps convert the bad toxin into a new substance called acetate, which is a little like vinegar. Lastly, it’s converted into carbon dioxide or water and expelled from your body. You’ve probably heard the one-drink-per-hour recommendation, which is roughly how long it takes for your liver to complete this whole process.

So what does this mean for occasional drinkers whose mid-20s have come and gone? To summarize: As your liver enzymes diminish with age, your body becomes less efficient at metabolizing alcohol. The alcohol lingers longer in your body, leading to prolonged hangover symptoms like headaches and nausea.

This phenomenon can also partly be explained by the fact that our bodies tend to lose muscle and water over time. People with more body fat don’t break down alcohol as well, and less water in your body means that the booze stays concentrated in your system longer, The Cut reports. This is one of the reasons why women, who tend to have a higher body fat percentage than men, often suffer worse hangovers than their male counterparts. (Additionally, women have fewer ADH enzymes.)

More depressingly, as you get older, your immune system deteriorates through a process called immunosenescence. This means that recovering from anything—hangovers included—is more challenging with age. "When we get older, our whole recovery process for everything we do is harder, longer, and slower," gastroenterologist Mark Welton told Men’s Health.

This may seem like a buzzkill, but we're not telling you to put down the pint. However, if you're going to drink, just be aware of your body’s limitations. Shots of cotton candy-flavored vodka were a bad idea in college, and they’re an especially bad idea now. Trust us.